Wednesday Feb. 24, 2010 Milan, Italy:
In a criminal trail, Judge Oscar Magi delivered a guilty verdict and sentenced three Google executives a six month suspended sentence. The conviction was for privacy violations. The executives however were absolved of defamation charges.
The case was the result of a video posted online showing an Italian autistic boy being cruelly abused by bullies. The convicted executives were David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer, Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, and George Reyes, Google’s chief financial officer who has since retired. A fourth executive, Arvind Desikan, Google’s senior product marketing manager, was acquitted.
The verdict may have major implications for Internet freedom. Google said it would appeal the decision, a process in Italy that is expected to take years.
